Mechanical plug connectors are commonly used in the prior art and in practice in order to establish a physical electrical connection between two units. It is possible to mechanically and electrically couple said units to one another either directly or by means of a cable connection in this way. Known problems with plug connections of this kind are wear and ageing phenomena due to repeated disconnection and contact-connection of the plugs until the plugs and/or cables break or the plug connection is permanently damaged in the event of mechanical overloading. Mechanical overloading, for example due to rotation of the units in relation to one another, can easily occur primarily owing to the conventional plug connectors being positioned in a fixed or rigid manner. A more flexible plug connection can be realized only with high levels of technical complexity and therefore expenditure, for example owing to special articulated connections. Furthermore, these measures themselves exhibit wear phenomena owing to frequent loading, as a result of which the service life of the units and/or of the components of said units is correspondingly limited.
In order to solve these problems and avoid the need for rigid mechanical coupling of the plug connectors, magnetic connection apparatuses are known in the prior art. For example, DE 10 2008 038 649 A1 presents an apparatus for establishing a connection between an electrical appliance and a cable which can be connected to the appliance and/or a further electrical apparatus. The apparatus is intended to comprise an adapter having two adapter parts with magnet elements, as a result of which the electrical appliance is connected to a further electrical appliance, for example a charger, a set of headphones, a microphone or a headset. The connection is intended to be made, in a first step, by rough guidance by means of at least one projection and one annular recess, for which reason a correspondingly large amount of play is provided. After the rough guidance, the two adapter parts are exactly positioned and centred in relation to one another in the second step by means of the magnetic forces of the magnet elements.
A significant advantage of this is that the user only has to move the two parts roughly toward one another and does not have to ensure correct contact-connection and assignment of contacts in the process. In this case, connections can also be made quickly and effortlessly in locations which are difficult to access. At the same time, this ensures that, in the event of excessive loading of the connection which could lead to damage to components for example, the connection is released as soon as the magnetic retaining forces are overcome by a higher force from the outside.
The magnetic connection apparatus according to DE 10 2008 038 649 A1 firmly specifies the alignment of the plug elements and/or connection members in relation to one another. Therefore, for example, rotation of the electrical appliances in relation to one another is not tolerated and would necessarily lead to the magnetic and therefore also the electrical connection being opened. The flexibility, for example of a cable connection, is therefore severely limited by the precise specification of the angle of approach. If two electrical appliances, such as mobile electrical appliances, docking stations or input devices for example, are intended to be directly connected to one another, user convenience in particular may be considerably reduced owing to the firmly specified orientation.
It may be advantageous to connect screens, keyboards or other electrical appliances to one another in an articulated or rotatable manner in relation to one another particularly in the case of mobile electrical appliances, such as tablets, portable computers and mobile telephones for example. Articulated mechanical connections (hinges) are known from the prior art for this purpose.